by Ellen G. White

Chapter 41: Desolation of the Earth

"Her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath
remembered her iniquities. . . . In the cup which she hath filled
fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously,
so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen,
and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in
one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire:
for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who
have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her,
and lament for her, . . . saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon,
that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come." Revelation
18:5-10. {GC 653.1}

"The merchants of the earth," that have
"waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies," "shall
stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying,
Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and
scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour
so great riches is come to nought." Revelation 18:11, 3, 15-17. {GC 653.2}

Such are the judgments that fall upon Babylon in the day of
the visitation of God's wrath. She has filled up the measure of her iniquity;
her time has come; she is ripe for destruction. [654]{GC 653.3}

When the voice of God turns the captivity of His people,
there is a terrible awakening of those who have lost all in the great conflict
of life. While probation continued they were blinded by Satan's deceptions, and
they justified their course of sin. The rich prided themselves upon their
superiority to those who were less favored; but they had obtained their riches
by violation of the law of God. They had neglected to feed the hungry, to
clothe the naked, to deal justly, and to love mercy. They had sought to exalt
themselves and to obtain the homage of their fellow creatures. Now they are
stripped of all that made them great and are left destitute and defenseless.
They look with terror upon the destruction of the idols which they preferred
before their Maker. They have sold their souls for earthly riches and
enjoyments, and have not sought to become rich toward God. The result is, their
lives are a failure; their pleasures are now turned to gall, their treasures to
corruption. The gain of a lifetime is swept away in a moment. The rich bemoan
the destruction of their grand houses, the scattering of their gold and silver.
But their lamentations are silenced by the fear that they themselves are to
perish with their idols. {GC
654.1}

The wicked are filled with regret, not because of their
sinful neglect of God and their fellow men, but because God has conquered. They
lament that the result is what it is; but they do not repent of their
wickedness. They would leave no means untried to conquer if they could. {GC 654.2}

The world see the very class whom they have mocked and
derided, and desired to exterminate, pass unharmed through pestilence, tempest,
and earthquake. He who is to the transgressors of His law a devouring fire, is
to His people a safe pavilion. {GC 654.3}

The minister who has sacrificed truth to gain the favor of
men now discerns the character and influence of his teachings. It is apparent
that the omniscient eye was following him as he stood in the desk, as he walked
the streets, as he mingled with men in the various scenes of life. Every [655]
emotion of the soul, every line written, every word uttered, every act that led
men to rest in a refuge of falsehood, has been scattering seed; and now, in the
wretched, lost souls around him, he beholds the harvest. {GC 654.4}

Saith the Lord: "They have healed the hurt of the
daughter of My people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no
peace." "With lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom
I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should
not return from his wicked way, by promising him life." Jeremiah 8:11;
Ezekiel 13:22. {GC 655.1}

"Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the
sheep of My pasture! . . . Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of
your doings." "Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in
the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for your days for slaughter and of your
dispersions are accomplished; . . . and the shepherds shall have no
way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape." Jeremiah 23:1, 2;
25:34, 35, margin. {GC
655.2}

Ministers and people see that they have not sustained the
right relation to God. They see that they have rebelled against the Author of
all just and righteous law. The setting aside of the divine precepts gave rise
to thousands of springs of evil, discord, hatred, iniquity, until the earth
became one vast field of strife, one sink of corruption. This is the view that
now appears to those who rejected truth and chose to cherish error. No language
can express the longing which the disobedient and disloyal feel for that which
they have lost forever—eternal life. Men whom the world has worshiped
for their talents and eloquence now see these things in their true light. They
realize what they have forfeited by transgression, and they fall at the feet of
those whose fidelity they have despised and derided, and confess that God has
loved them. {GC 655.3}

The people see that they have been deluded. They accuse one
another of having led them to destruction; but all unite in heaping their
bitterest condemnation upon the ministers. Unfaithful pastors have prophesied
smooth things; they have led their hearers to make void the law of God and to [656]
persecute those who would keep it holy. Now, in their despair, these teachers
confess before the world their work of deception. The multitudes are filled
with fury. "We are lost!" they cry, "and you are the cause of
our ruin;" and they turn upon the false shepherds. The very ones that once
admired them most will pronounce the most dreadful curses upon them. The very
hands that once crowned them with laurels will be raised for their destruction.
The swords which were to slay God's people are now employed to destroy their
enemies. Everywhere there is strife and bloodshed. {GC 655.4}

"A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for
the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, He will plead with all flesh; He
will give them that are wicked to the sword." Jeremiah 25:31. For six
thousand years the great controversy has been in progress; the Son of God and
His heavenly messengers have been in conflict with the power of the evil one,
to warn, enlighten, and save the children of men. Now all have made their
decisions; the wicked have fully united with Satan in his warfare against God.
The time has come for God to vindicate the authority of His downtrodden law.
Now the controversy is not alone with Satan, but with men. "The Lord hath
a controversy with the nations;" "He will give them that are wicked
to the sword." {GC
656.1}

The mark of deliverance has been set upon those "that
sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done." Now the angel of
death goes forth, represented in Ezekiel's vision by the men with the
slaughtering weapons, to whom the command is given: "Slay utterly old and
young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon
whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary." Says the prophet: "They
began at the ancient men which were before the house." Ezekiel 9:1-6. The
work of destruction begins among those who have professed to be the spiritual
guardians of the people. The false watchmen are the first to fall. There are
none to pity or to spare. Men, women, maidens, and little children perish
together. {GC 656.2}

"The Lord cometh out of His place to punish the
inhabitants [657] of the earth for their iniquity:
the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her
slain." Isaiah 26:21. "And this shall be the plague wherewith the
Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh
shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall
consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their
mouth. And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord
shall be among them; and they shall lay hold everyone on the hand of his
neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor."
Zechariah 14:12, 13. In the mad strife of their own fierce passions, and by the
awful outpouring of God's unmingled wrath, fall the wicked inhabitants of the
earth—priests, rulers, and people, rich and poor, high and low.
"And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth
even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither
gathered, nor buried." Jeremiah 25:33. {GC 656.3}

At the coming of Christ the wicked are blotted from the face
of the whole earth—consumed with the spirit of His mouth and
destroyed by the brightness of His glory. Christ takes His people to the City
of God, and the earth is emptied of its inhabitants. "Behold, the Lord
maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and
scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof." "The land shall be
utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word."
"Because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken
the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they
that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are
burned." Isaiah 24:1, 3, 5, 6. {GC 657.1}

The whole earth appears like a desolate wilderness. The
ruins of cities and villages destroyed by the earthquake, uprooted trees,
ragged rocks thrown out by the sea or torn out of the earth itself, are
scattered over its surface, while vast caverns mark the spot where the mountains
have been rent from their foundations. [658]{GC 657.2}

Now the event takes place foreshadowed in the last solemn
service of the Day of Atonement. When the ministration in the holy of holies
had been completed, and the sins of Israel had been removed from the sanctuary
by virtue of the blood of the sin offering, then the scapegoat was presented
alive before the Lord; and in the presence of the congregation the high priest
confessed over him "all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all
their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the
goat." Leviticus 16:21. In like manner, when the work of atonement in the
heavenly sanctuary has been completed, then in the presence of God and heavenly
angels and the hosts of the redeemed the sins of God's people will be placed
upon Satan; he will be declared guilty of all the evil which he has caused them
to commit. And as the scapegoat was sent away into a land not inhabited, so
Satan will be banished to the desolate earth, an uninhabited and dreary
wilderness. {GC 658.1}

The revelator foretells the banishment of Satan and the
condition of chaos and desolation to which the earth is to be reduced, and he
declares that this condition will exist for a thousand years. After presenting
the scenes of the Lord's second coming and the destruction of the wicked, the
prophecy continues: "I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key
of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the
dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a
thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set
a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand
years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little
season." Revelation 20:1-3. {GC 658.2}

That the expression "bottomless pit" represents
the earth in a state of confusion and darkness is evident from other
scriptures. Concerning the condition of the earth "in the beginning,"
the Bible record says that it "was without form, and void; and darkness
was upon the face of the deep." [THE HEBREW WORD HERE TRANSLATED
"DEEP" IS RENDERED IN THE SEPTUAGINT (GREEK) TRANSLATION OF THE
HEBREW OLD TESTAMENT BY THE SAME WORD RENDERED "BOTTOMLESS PIT" IN
REVELATION 20:1-3.] [659] Genesis 1:2. Prophecy teaches
that it will be brought back, partially at least, to this condition. Looking
forward to the great day of God, the prophet Jeremiah declares: "I beheld
the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they
had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills
moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the
heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and
all the cities thereof were broken down." Jeremiah 4:23-26. {GC 658.3}

Here is to be the home of Satan with his evil angels for a
thousand years. Limited to the earth, he will not have access to other worlds
to tempt and annoy those who have never fallen. It is in this sense that he is
bound: there are none remaining, upon whom he can exercise his power. He is
wholly cut off from the work of deception and ruin which for so many centuries
has been his sole delight. {GC
659.1}

The prophet Isaiah, looking forward to the time of Satan's
overthrow, exclaims: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of
the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the
nations! . . . Thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: . . . I will
be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of
the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee,
saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake
kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities
thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?" Isaiah
14:12-17. {GC 659.2}

For six thousand years, Satan's work of rebellion has
"made the earth to tremble." He had "made the world as a
wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof." And he "opened not the
house of his prisoners." For six thousand years his prison house has
received God's people, and he would have held them captive forever; but Christ
had broken his bonds and set the prisoners free. [660]{GC 659.3}

Even the wicked are now placed beyond the power of Satan,
and alone with his evil angels he remains to realize the effect of the curse
which sin has brought. "The kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in
glory, everyone in his own house [the grave]. But thou art cast out of thy
grave like an abominable branch. . . . Thou shalt not be joined with
them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy
people." Isaiah 14:18-20. {GC 660.1}

For a thousand years, Satan will wander to and fro in the
desolate earth to behold the results of his rebellion against the law of God.
During this time his sufferings are intense. Since his fall his life of
unceasing activity has banished reflection; but he is now deprived of his power
and left to contemplate the part which he has acted since first he rebelled
against the government of heaven, and to look forward with trembling and terror
to the dreadful future when he must suffer for all the evil that he has done
and be punished for the sins that he has caused to be committed. {GC 660.2}

To God's people the captivity of Satan will bring gladness
and rejoicing. Says the prophet: "It shall come to pass in the day that
Jehovah shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy trouble, and from
the hard service wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this
parable against the king of Babylon [here representing Satan], and say, How
hath the oppressor ceased! . . . Jehovah hath broken the staff of the
wicked, the scepter of the rulers; that smote the peoples in wrath with a
continual stroke, that ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none
restrained." Verses 3-6, R.V. {GC 660.3}

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During the thousand years between the first and the second
resurrection the judgment of the wicked takes place. The apostle Paul points to
this judgment as an event that follows the second advent. "Judge nothing
before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden
things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of [661] the
hearts." 1 Corinthians 4:5. Daniel declares that when the Ancient of Days
came, "judgment was given to the saints of the Most High." Daniel
7:22. At this time the righteous reign as kings and priests unto God. John in
the Revelation says: "I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment
was given unto them." "They shall be priests of God and of Christ,
and shall reign with Him a thousand years." Revelation 20:4, 6. It is at
this time that, as foretold by Paul, "the saints shall judge the
world." 1 Corinthians 6:2. In union with Christ they judge the wicked,
comparing their acts with the statute book, the Bible, and deciding every case
according to the deeds done in the body. Then the portion which the wicked must
suffer is meted out, according to their works; and it is recorded against their
names in the book of death. {GC
660.4}

Satan also and evil angels are judged by Christ and His
people. Says Paul: "Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" Verse 3.
And Jude declares that "the angels which kept not their first estate, but
left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under
darkness unto the judgment of the great day." Jude 6. {GC 661.1}

At the close of the thousand years the second resurrection
will take place. Then the wicked will be raised from the dead and appear before
God for the execution of "the judgment written." Thus the revelator,
after describing the resurrection of the righteous, says: "The rest of the
dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Revelation
20:5. And Isaiah declares, concerning the wicked: "They shall be gathered
together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the
prison, and after many days shall they be visited." Isaiah 24:22. {GC 661.2}